Land-selling chiefs disappoint Lungu

Tue, 30 May 2017 09:58:41 +0000

By SANDRA MACHIMA

PRESIDENT Edgar Lungu is disappointed with traditional leaders selling huge tracts of land to foreigners at the expense of Zambians.

He warned that although the royal highnesses were custodians of land, they should not abuse their role but instead must preserve the God-given inheritance.

President Lungu said the Land Act, which was being drafted would be able to address some of these challenges, and enhance good governance, decentralization, as well as transparency in land administration, forestry and environmental management.

The Head of State said people faced challenges when acquiring land which was why Government in 2014 embarked on the land audit programme aimed at compiling a comprehensive, accurate and reliable database of all land in Zambia.

President Lungu was speaking during the opening of the first meeting of the fifth House of Chiefs in Lusaka yesterday.

“It is imperative that land was serviced before developers embark on developing, it is for this reason, government introduced the land development fund accessed by local councils to help them service the land,” he said.

Recently, a named chief of Central province allegedly sold a large piece of land to a foreign investor, a situation that had left some smallholder farmers displaced.

The Head of State said Zambia has had no land policy since independence, saying it was for that reason the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources had continued its consultative process to finalise the national land policy in a bid to improve land governance in the country.

He said the consultation process was inconclusive without input from chiefs who played a crucial role in the management and administration of customary land.

And President Lungu implored the House of Chiefs to take keen interest in finding a lasting solution to the challenge of increasing number of succession disputes in some chiefdoms.

He said chiefdoms were the foundation of the country’s peace and tranquility hence the need to ensure their stability.

“We should not jeopardise our country’s impeccable record of peace and stability, and one of the ways to minimise succession disputes is for chiefdoms to prepare indisputable family trees which must be submitted to the ministry of chiefs and traditional affairs, to help determine the rightful heir to the throne in case of disputes,” he said. The President maintained that following constitutional amendments, it was no longer within government’s jurisdiction to issue any Statutory Instruments to recognize chiefs or withdraw their recognition.

He urge the house of chiefs to seriously look into the matter and draft guidelines to regulate the institution of chieftaincy, to ensure that conflicts in relation to succession and possible mushrooming of chiefdoms within existing chiefdoms were minimised.

And President Lungu has acknowledged that inadequacies in the law were hampering the struggle to access protection for the  children, saying the current Zambian legal framework do not sufficiently define the minimum age for marriage.

“The current legal system, marriages can occur under customary or statutory law, and therefore these gaps in marriage laws and other child related laws impede efforts for activists to advocate gender equality for children.